Sustainable Energy for the Future

At the end of 20th century, specialized magazines predicted “free electricity” in a near future. But, even though this has not been possible yet, there are some advancements in producing free energy in these years.

In the future, civilizations will be forced more they are currently doing, to seek new energy sources to meet their growing demands for resources and with the current consumption rate of fossil fuels, we are decades away from an energy crisis, and If an effective substitute is not found to meet the needs of consumers.

When we talk about new energies, we do not refer to new energy sources, but new methods, technologies with which we can take advantage of existing energy sources.

Air Wind Plants.

The concept developed by NASA involves putting kites like turbines in the air moving at high altitude and sending the energy generated to earth by means of nanotubes.

The kites could be funnel-shaped dirigibles with a turbine at the rear, or a balloon with rotating blades, a parachute, a comet, and so on. All are ideas considered by the newborn renewable energy industry.

This concept does not require large amounts of space on land, nor are labor-intensive and non-polluting. Generators could last for a year in the air and then be lowered for review or in case of a storm.

Seaweed for Biofuel elaboration.

The ethanol production from maize or sugarcane is already a major global industry, but it has also caused large tracts of land formerly used to grow food to become fuel fields.

According to recent research, common algae can be used to be transformed into fuels. These can be cultivated in depressions of 1 meter of width and to be harvested every 5 or 8 days.

For the production of fuel, the algae are scraped, dried and then the carbohydrates are extracted and converted into sugars. After a fermentation process, the sugars are converted to butyric, lactic and acetic acid.

This new process costs much less, and it is more efficient while helping to reduce water pollution.

Energy Generation through Waste.

The huge population growth, along with modern consumption habits have resulted in the generation of huge amounts of waste. The treatment of these has always been a problem, but new technological solutions are emerging with the potential of transforming waste into energy, some of these are:

Thermochemical Conversion.

Through the waste combustion that creates a heat used to heat water and produce steam which is then transformed into energy by means of steam turbines. Includes combustion, pyrolysis and gasification of waste.

Biochemical Conversion.

From anaerobic digestion, decomposition of biodegradable material by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen, biogas is produced that can be used in the electricity production, or heat.

Physicochemical Conversion.

It transforms the fuel fraction from the waste into high energy fuel pellets, which can then be used in the generation of steam or heat. They are similar to coal pieces, but they are cleaner and free from non-combustible materials.